Just a day after the Syrian government and the main Kurdish movement, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), announced a broad agreement that includes a ceasefire, it appears to have already begun to fall apart, with the two sides clashing on Monday near two prisons holding Islamic State militants.
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Following the latest clashes, the SDF issued a statement calling on "all our youth" to "join the ranks of the resistance".
"Just as our comrades created a historic resistance in Kobani in 2014 and turned it into a graveyard (for the Islamic State), today we reaffirm our equal determination to turn our cities into graveyards for new ones with such a mindset orchestrated by Turkey," the statement reads.
The Syrian Democratic Forces also announced that several of their Kurdish fighters were killed and dozens wounded in fighting with the Syrian army in the northeast of the country around two prisons holding Islamic State members.
The clash occurred while the commander-in-chief of the Kurdish formation, Mazlum Abdi, was reportedly in Damascus negotiating with the Syrian government about a ceasefire agreed on Sunday after several days of bloody clashes in which government forces seized swathes of northeastern Syria. However, Abdi did not say anything about such a meeting.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces control about 15 prisons in the northeast of the country, where 9.000 Islamic State fighters have been held for years. They have been held there without trial. Many are suspected of committing mass atrocities in Syria and Iraq since the terrorist group they belonged to declared a "caliphate" over large parts of Syria in June 2014.
The Syrian army announced that in the chaos of the conflict around two prisons, several prisoners managed to escape from one of them, in the town of Shadeh, and that a curfew had been imposed.
The public is urged to provide information about the fugitives. A search is underway for them.
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